Story: 17-year-old Zoe Hull uses her wits, survival skills, and compassion to fight for her life, and those of her fellow classmates, against a group of live-streaming school shooters.
Run Hide Fight is a completely emotional and intense/violent ride of a Columbine-like situation with the teen version of Rambo as our lead. Not without its flaws and pacing issues, Run Hide Fight manages to entertain and put you on the edge of your seat for nearly two hours. While brutal on the outside, on the inside this is still a well-told story about dealing with loss and of course, survival.
Rounded with a strong supporting cast like Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill), Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea), and Barbara Crampton (You're Next) make this is a hard miss elevated by the talented newcomer Isabel May (Let's Scare Julie) who carries the film excellently and is charismatic enough to make us care for her and her fight. Olly Sholotan (All American) works great with her and both have solid chemistry as two lovebirds. Eli Brown (Spinning Out), our main antagonist, is despicable enough even if his character is nothing more than a walking stereotype.
Actually, and that for me is one huge flaw, for a movie motivated by real-life stories, every character except maybe our heroine is a walking stereotype and that in exchange makes it harder to care for anyone besides Isabel May. Boohoo, our baddies are killing people because they were bullied by school teachers and other students. Boohoo, of course, our main shooters are in a queer relationship. If I hear that one more time... Still, that doesn't overshadow the good. There's still a lot of heart and thrills at its core.
The action sequences are fairly intense and staged. For the most part, this whole ordeal feels organic even if sometimes feels, like critics say, "heavy-handed" with its message on social media and such. Sometimes it was hard for me to buy a teenager going Rambo at a school shooting but that's okay too. The acting is great and so is the direction which more than makes up for its flaws.
In the end, Run Hide Fight is a surprise, especially coming out in January (dumpster month as they call it). There's not much room for surprises as it's predictable and safe as hell, but it's quite the thrill ride. Thomas Jane is underused but Radha Mitchell is used to good effect. Isabel May is great and I expect good things in her future. I feel like this is one of those stories to lift your spirits in times of pandemic.
Watch the trailer:
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